A framework for digital building logbooks: Drivers of affordable, circular and sustainable built environment

POLICY AREA	RELATED EU POLICIES/INITIATIVES
Operational energy performance and renewable energy	Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD); Energy Efficiency Directive (EED); Renewable Energy Directive (RED); Internal Market for Electricity (IME) Directive
Whole life carbon (WLC), lifecycle assessment (LCA), circularity and embodied energy	Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP); Strategy for a Sustainable Built Environment; Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR); Construction Products Regulation (CPR)
Market and competitiveness	Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) Directive; Public Procurement Directive (PPD)
Sustainability reporting and disclosures	EU Taxonomy Regulation; Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD); European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)
Digitalisation and smart technologies	Data Governance Act (DGA); Interoperable Europe Act (IEA); Data Act (DA); Open Data Directive (ODD); General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); European Strategy for Data (ESD); Data Union Strategy (DUS)
Societal impact and wellbeing	European Affordable Housing Plan (EAHP); European Strategy for Housing Construction (ESHC); New European Bauhaus (NEB)

Table 2

Capital cost assumptions for setting up DBLs (based on Ecorys et al., 2023).

		PERSON DAYS	PERSON DAY COST	TOTAL PERSONNEL COSTS	BULK COSTS – ONE TIME	BULK COSTS – RECURRING PER MONTH
DBL development – capital costs	Collecting data on existing buildings	1.5	500	750
	Verification of data	0.5	500	250
	Development of an online platform				50,000
	Development of a semantic model				10,000
	Agreement about data norms with stakeholders				50,000
	Developing a data dictionary				5,000
	Costs for licensed data
Data infrastructure – hardware	Virtual machine					300
Data infrastructure – hardware	Cloud storage					650
Data infrastructure – software	Semantic modelling tools					200
	Semantic model hosting tools					100
	Software to store and search data					50
	API software to collect and/or share data					200
	Total DBL setup and operation without no additional functionality			1,000	115,000	18,000

Table 3

Assumptions for social cost-benefit analysis.

DBL FUNCTIONALITIES	COSTS/BENEFITS	COST COMPONENT	COST OF CONVENTIONAL PROCESS PER DBL (EUR)	COST OF DBL-ENABLED PROCESS PER DBL (EUR)	COST DIFFERENCE	COST IMPLICATION/NOTES
Renovation passport	Primary benefit	Labour (on-site data collection)	1,000	100	900	Cost savings resulting from reduced labour and travel time.
Renovation passport	Primary cost	Software/Tools	0	50	–50	Additional costs for renovation passport functionality
Renovation passport	Primary benefit	Professional fees for generating a renovation passport	95	32	63	Cost savings resulting from reduced expert time and fees.
Renovation passport	Primary benefit	Maintenance/Updates	500	5	495	Cost saving: reduced manual updates over time.
Renovation passport	Other benefit	Data management & integration	500	20	480	Cost savings resulting from easier access to data.
Renovation passport	Other benefit	Quality assurance	10	5	5	Cost savings resulting from fewer manual checks and higher data quality.
Circular market places	Primary benefit	Labour (on-site data collection)	1,000	100	900	Cost savings resulting from reduced labour and travel time.
Circular market places	Primary benefit	Labour (making a digital inventory of components and materials)	250	150	100	Cost savings resulting from eliminating manual labour.
BIM integration	Primary benefit	Digital platform for materials		150	–150	Cost savings resulting from the existing DBL digital infrastructure
BIM integration	Primary benefit	Duration of the permit process	6,500	1,350	5,150	Cost savings resulting from reduced time required.
Data collection, storage and access	Primary cost	Data management & integration	0	100	–100	Additional costs for storage and software
Data collection, storage and access	Primary benefit	Administrative burden	2,500	100	2,400	Cost savings resulting from eliminating manual labour and time saving.

Table 4

SCBA scenarios.

	DBL FUNCTIONALITIES	DISCOUNT RATES	DBL UPTAKE (ANNUAL ARITHMETIC INCREASE)	INCREASE IN ANNUAL OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE COSTS DUE TO SCALING UP
Scenario 1 (low uptake)	Core DBL function (data storage and retrieval	6%	10,000	2.5%
Scenario 2 (medium uptake)	Scenario 1+ Automated renovation passports with DBLs	4%	100,000	5%
Scenario 3 (high uptake)	Scenario 2+ Integration of DBLs with BIM models; DBLs as facilitators of secondary marketplaces and circularity	2%	200,000	10%

Role and purpose of DBLs (building data) as envisaged in the EU policy framework.

Building data requirements as envisaged in the EU policy framework.

Tools and instruments as envisaged in the EU policy framework.

Table 5

Enablers for digital governance framework for DBLs.

POLICY	ENABLERS FOR DBLS
Data Governance Act	Builds trust in voluntary data sharing Establishes data intermediation services Deploys trusted mediators between data holders and users Ensures data interoperability Establishes European Data Innovation Board for cross-sector standards Enables data sharing between emerging European data spaces
Interoperable Europe Act	Provides governance framework for cross-border interoperability of trans-European digital public services Establishes Interoperable Europe Board (IEB) Establishes European Interoperability Framework (EIF) Provide a single point of contact per Member State
Data Act	Provides harmonised rules for making product and related service data available Facilitate access to data, its transfer, interoperability, and switching between service providers
Open Data Directive	Enables innovation in products and services using open data Provides high-value datasets leading to value-added services and job creation
General Data Protection Regulation	Governs the collection and use of personal data of EU citizens, protecting fundamental rights and privacy
European Strategy for Data	Enables a single market for data Strengthens Europe’s global competitiveness and data sovereignty Develops Common European Data Spaces (CEDS) as an ecosystem for new products and services
Data Union Strategy	Improves data access for AI to develop innovative services for consumers Enables high-quality data sharing Implements European data quality standards Supports Data Spaces and Data Labs Enables one-click compliance initiatives
NEB	Promotes use of digital tools Supports high-quality research and scaling of innovations Enables circularity in the built environment Develops EU Local Digital Twin applications Applies AI tools

Functionalities, benefits and costs of DBLs (Gokarakonda & Zsolt, 2025).

Table 6

Results of the SCBA analysis (NPV and CBR).

	SCENARIO 1	SCENARIO 2	SCENARIO 3
NPV (EUR bn)	3,746.6	562.2	11.5
CBR	9.4	3.6	2.1

Table 7

Approximate costs per DBL (selected years).

YEAR	TOTAL COST PER DBL (€)	BASIC COST PER DBL (€)	ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY COST PER DBL (€)	SHARE OF ADDED FUNCTIONALITIES
3	1,185	1,035	150	~13%
10	1,237	1,084	153	~12%
25	1,251	1,101	150	~12%

A vision for DBLs in the EU policy framework.

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.66506/essp.7-116-26 | Journal eISSN: 2001-7960

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Language: English

Page range: 12 - 12

Submitted on: Mar 17, 2026

Accepted on: May 15, 2026

Published on: Jul 20, 2026

Published by: European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee)

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

digital building logbooks,

digital transition,

building data requirements,

DBL framework

© 2026 Sriraj Gokarakonda, Zsolt Toth, published by European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 1 (2026): Issue 1

A framework for digital building logbooks: Drivers of affordable, circular and sustainable built environment

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